LOSERS IN LOUISIANA GOVERNOR’S RACE!

Friday, November 27^th, 2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

LOSERS IN LOUISIANA GOVERNOR’S RACE!

Four months ago in the Louisiana governor’s race, Senator David Vitter was a slam-dunk.  He seemed to have it all.  Gobs of PAC money flowing in from all over the U.S., strong support from most of the Republican establishment including his GOP colleagues in Washington, and a huge lead in the polls.  There was no way he could lose.  But he did.  Some how, some way David Vitter snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. And in the process, we witnessed a number of losers.  Here are just a few:

1. Obviously, the top loser was the Senator himself.  He laid the seeds of defeat early on by his attacks on fellow Republicans Jay Dardenne and Scott Angelle.  Both are well-liked statewide officials who have done a good job in their respective offices. Vitter had a stronger base of supporters and significantly more campaign dollars. It just was not necessary to attack both of these candidates as he continued to do.

As the campaign wore on, the animosity grew, and Vitter lost any chance of uniting the Republican brand in the run off.  To show how poorly he failed in this regard, Vitter was beaten badly in his home parish of Jefferson, a strong republican bastion of voters. They dumped their local guy from their own party, and jumped into the abyss of supporting a democrat.

2. Big Business.  The top business voice in the state is LABI, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry.  The leadership waffled on both if and when to endorse.  By the time they leaped on what they thought was the Vitter victory bandwagon, their support was too little and way too late.  The same vacillation came from the other major business groups including the La. Chemical Association and the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. Their support for Vitter came in the eleventh hour, past the time to make any significant difference.

3.  Bobby Jindal- There has never been any love lost between the current governor and Vitter. And it seems to many in the state GOP that Jindal took one final shot at the Senator in the waning days of the campaign. Vitter had some momentum in his last minute effort to tie John Bel Edwards to President Obama over bringing Syrian refugees to Louisiana. It was a good issue for Vitter and the polls indicated a tightening race.

Then Jindal grabbed the state headlines by dropping out of the presidential race, and Vitter’s attacks were relegated to the back burner. Jindal could have waited a few more days for his final demise, but his push for news headlines squashed any impetus for Vitter to close the gap. Jindal got in the last punch but belittled himself even more, if that were possible.

4. The TV Debates-TV moderators in just about every televised debate did little to challenge the gubernatorial candidates on important state issues.  Particularly bizarre was the New Orleans debate broadcast statewide and sponsored by TV station WDSU.  The moderator ignored financial and educational issues, spending the majority of time quizzing candidates about their pot smoking habits as kids, and whether they belonged to a gun club.  The few that watched any of the debates gained sparse knowledge about what the candidates would do in addressing a number of front burner issues on finance, health and education.

5. Educational Reform-Under state education superintendent John White, Louisiana has been recognized nationwide for a number of educational reforms, particularly in the growth of charter schools and the modification of teacher tenure. New governor John Bel Edwards has opposed most of these changes and has called for White’s firing. White has a stellar reputation as an educational reformer around the country and can write his ticket if he wants to leave for greener pastures. He probably will and Louisiana will be the loser.

Sure there are a number of big winners. The biggest champs were Louisiana television stations that raked in almost $20 million in the governor’s race alone. We will have a long list of winners in next week’s column. But let’s give the losers a week to lick their wounds. And in the immortal words of Imelda Marcos, “Win or lose, we go shopping after the election.”

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

THE DEMISE OF BOBBY JINDAL!

Thursday, November 19^th, 2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

THE DEMISE OF BOBBY JINDAL!

Former Louisiana state senator Sixty Rayburn was well know for his folksy sayings during legislative sessions.  He often urged his colleagues to never forget the folks back home when deciding issues at the state capitol.  Sixty put it this way.  “Always dance with the one that brought you.”  It’s a lesson Bobby Jindal forgot during his quixotic campaign for president that ended abruptly this week.

Jindal’s early appeal was that he was a young, articulate republican governor with an Indian American background.  He wasn’t just another old white guy that has been the foundation of the national Republican Party in recent years.  Most Louisianans don’t remember what a dynamo of youth and energy he radiated in his early political career.  He was insatiable in traveling the state and seeking out problems to solve.

I remember back in 2005, following Hurricane Katrina, when I was having lunch with a local south Louisiana mayor.  Jindal was a congressman at that time, but did not represent that part of the state.  The mayor commented that Jindal regularly called to offer federal help, and shared his cell phone number.  “He was doing the same for other officials all over the state,” he remembered. “The young fellow seemed to be everywhere.”

Jindal took the same approach in his early tenure as governor.  His governing style was “hands on,” and he was readily available to the press and to the public. In fact, he was criticized by some for traveling each Sunday to a different church in the state, particularly in north Louisiana.  His popularity was sky high.

But then his hubris got the best of him.  National republicans, desperate to show that the GOP could grow a bigger tent, began embellishing the young governor as a future national leader. Ego took over, and Jindal began his quest to build a national image while ignoring Louisiana concerns.  Governing Louisiana became an afterthought.

Four years earlier, Jindal was ballyhooed as a possible vice presidential contender on a Mitt Romney ticket.  On paper, Jindal looked like a popular governor with an impressive resume’ to boot.  But that was then. The republican presidential playing field changed dramatically in four years. Jindal’s earlier strengths became current abilities.

Jindal was one of a number of governors who ran for the nomination this time, all assuming that their executive experience would be a major asset. But holding office has become a burden for GOP candidates. Donald Trump and Ben Carson have cut all these governors off at the knees. Jindal was just one of the mix and never could distinguish himself.

Jindal also counted on his policy experience as being a plus in attracting voters.  Governor, congressman, and heading up health and education departments all were part of his resume’ of being a policy wonk.  But most voters are not wonks.  Neither is Donald Trump or Ben Carson.  Numerous wonks have been telling voters how to solve the nation’s problems for years, but with feeble success.  Jindal got little traction with his institutional knowledge.

As his national campaign floundered, in desperation Jindal started lobbing grenades. He became incendiary in his rhetoric, staking out extreme positions on numerous issues that turned many voters off.  Jindal’s rabble-rousing press releases were looked on by the national press as desperate efforts of a dying campaign.

But when all was said and done, it was the voters of Louisiana that pulled the plug on Jindal’s national ambitions. While Jindal traveled the country and abandoned his responsibilities as governor, financial problems continued to mount and voter frustrations boiled over. Current polls have Jindal’s unfavorability rating at 70 percent, the worst rating buy any governor in the past 100 years.

Louisianans became fed up with a chief executive who discarded his state responsibilities to further his own personal agenda. And this frustration was recognized by the national press. The line on Jindal across the country was that if he could not handle problems at home, how could he lead on a national level?  Jindal’s demise did not happen on the campaign trail.  He shot himself in the foot by ignoring Louisiana problems.

A new governor will soon take over and attempt to clean up the fiscal mess left in the current governor’s wake.  It is time to move on for the good of the state. So much for Bobby Jindal.

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“I’m going to apply all my knowledge and training from my Ivy League and Oxford educations,… and as Chief Executive Officer of the state Louisiana. Here it is– here’s my sophisticated analysis: we have one hell of a mess.”

 Gov. Bobby Jindal

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

BETRAYING YOUR POLITICAL PARTY IN LOUISIANA

Thursday, November 12th, 2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BETRAYING YOUR POLITICAL PARTY IN LOUISIANA

You may not have heard, but there is apparently a strict code of loyalty among Republican candidates in Louisiana. They follow the rule of never speaking ill about a fellow republican, and they always rally behind the parties’ choice against any democratic challenger. 

That’s why the wrath of the party reigned down on Jay Dardenne, the current Lt. Governor and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate in the recent statewide election.  Dardenne finished forth and had the audacity to endorse Democratic challenger Rep. John Bell Edwards. Republican officials were quick to castigate Dardenne for his unforgiveable blunder.

The national Republican Party Chairman, Reince Priebus, called Dardenne’s action an “act of betrayal to the Republican Party.”  Back home in Louisiana, state party boss Roger Villere labeled Dardenne  “the Nick Saban of Louisiana politics.”  That might not be the best shot to take since Saban seems to have LSU’s number, roundly trouncing the Tigers just two weekends ago.

So is it an unforgivable party betrayal to cross party lines in the Bayou State?  Hardly.  Both democrats and republicans have been doing it for years.  A good example, one that these outraged GOP official don’t want to mention today, was the gubernatorial election of 1979.  I remember the details well since I too was on the ballot running my first statewide race for Secretary of State.

Republican Congressman Dave Treen led the first primary field of candidates with Lt. Governor Jimmy Fitzmorris and Public Service Commissioner Louis Lambert, both democrats, in hot pursuit.  Jimmy Fitz initially led the vote totals for second place and a run off spot against Treen.  But when the voting machines were opened three days later, Lambert jumped ahead of Fitz and claimed the run off spot.  The Fitzmorris team cried foul and immediately filed suit to overturn the results.

Prior to my election as Secretary of State, there was no official count to determine results on election night. The old-time voting machines spit our a printed results card that a voting precinct clerk would drive down to the clerk of court’s office. There the results sat until the following Tuesday’s actual vote count. 

After a lengthy court fight, democrat Lambert was declared the victor to face republican Treen in the run off.  The four candidates behind Treen and Lambert in the vote count were all democrats.  And guess what?  All four democrats endorsed republican Dave Treen!  Yes, there was some mumbling by democrats about betrayals. Treen barely won and the four endorsements certainly made the difference.  Will the same thing happen on November 21^st?

Upon taking office, I formed an Elections Integrity Commission to investigate the voter fraud allegations.  When the official count took place three days after the election, there were a number of changes in the totals.  Many were based on problems with the old voting machines.  Polling commissioners had to open the backs of the machines on election night, stand up on a stool, and read small vote totals often in dim light.

 I observed one vote count at a precinct where an older commissioner looked at the back of the voting machine, squinted and tried hard to make out the small numbers. “Hum, let’s see. I think it’s 325, no it’s 225.”  He just had a hard time reading the totals, and mistakes were made. When the official counting took place the following Tuesday, it was daylight with a number of officials reading each tally. So after an exhaustive study, my commission concluded that it was human error, not voter fraud that caused discrepancies in the final vote count. Yes, and new voting machines were ordered.

Louisiana is the only state in the nation that has an open or “jungle” primary, where all the candidates, democratic and republican, run together. The top two vote getters enter a run-off regardless of party affiliation.  It is hard to demand party loyalty when two candidates from the same party often face each other in a run off.  Political parties can’t offer any help unless their candidate is facing an opposing party candidate.

What this means is that party officials might not be happy about one of their candidates crossing party lines. Oh, they might try to even the score in a future election.  But in the scheme of things, party officials who demand total loyalty by losing candidates look petty and vindictive. They certainly do not help their cause to win elections.

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“Don’t buy a single vote more than necessary.

I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.”

Joseph P. Kennedy

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.

TURN PRISONERS LOOSE IN LOUISIANA?

November 5^th, 2015

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

TURN PRISONERS LOOSE IN LOUISIANA?

We have been hearing for years that Louisiana has the world’s highest incarceration rate. There are currently some 40,000 Bayou State residents behind bars, at a cost of $350 million a year. The conventional wisdom from numerous officials in Louisiana is that our prisons are too full, and that so many incarcerations are costing taxpayers too much money. So do we turn ‘em loose?

Both candidates in the Louisiana gubernatorial run off have indicated their support for some type of reform to reduce the current prison population.  Democrat John Bel Edwards is being lambasted in TV commercials by Republican opponent David Vitter for suggesting that Edwards wants to ”release 5,500 violent thugs.”  But Vitter also espouses loosening the present detention rules in his policy plan called “Together, Louisiana Strong.” The Senator advocates “cost-effective work release and monitoring programs.”

A number of good government groups are calling for reducing prison sentences to save taxpayer dollars. For many politicians, it’s all about saving money.  A legitimate question would be that, yes, the state needs to cut costs and save tax dollars.  But at the expense of public safety?

We have heard time and time again that the vast majority of prisoners are locked up for drug offenses.  But Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, a nonprofit that advocates reducing the prison population, says this is not true.  “Lots of people think that 80% of the people who are locked up are there for low–level drug offenses, and that’s not even close to being true. More than half the people in state prisons today have been convicted of violent offenses. That’s what they’re serving time for,” He said.

There are also advocates for turning loose or reducing sentences of nonviolent offenders.  But will only violent criminals face harsh sentences?  A criminal can cause devastating damage without doing bodily harm.

How about a guy like Allan Stanford who ran a massive global Ponzi scheme that bilked the entire life savings of several thousand Louisianans?  He received a sentence of 110 years. Do you think his investors have a desire to let him do community service so taxpayers can save the money it takes to keep him in prison? 

If our politicians want to turn loose “non-violent convicts,” then consider a host of such crimes that cause untold damage to individuals and the public. Racketeering, extortion, drug dealing, arson, bribery, a whole list to of white collar crimes that financially destroy the victim, receiving stolen goods, tax cheats, robbery, embezzlement; the list is extensive.  Should such criminals be “cut some slack” so that the Louisiana legislature can have more money to spend?

I’m a “Law and Order” fan on late night TV.  Night after night, I have viewed episodes of drug distribution and overdoses that destroy so many lives and tear apart so many families. And the harm is not just TV fiction. The same stories play out every single day in our newspapers all over the state.  There are numerous cases, growing in number, of our young folks destroying their lives by making, using and taking drugs like LSD and a variety of amphetamines. Should Louisiana make light of drugs that cause so much damage and not give prison time to those involved in the illegal drug trade?  Not just No, but hell No.

There most certainly is justification for reviewing both criminal penalties and sentencing guidelines for a variety of low-level crimes in Louisiana. Occasional use of marijuana should not be the cause for sending someone to prison. But a dealer and his chain of distributors are a different story. Any crime that causes significant harm, by violence or otherwise, should have to face the consequences. 

And these consequences should be more than for the purpose of just saving money.  Yes, Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in America. But New Orleans is also the murder capitol of the U.S.  Baton Rouge is not far behind.  There are a lot of bad guys out there. The discussion of revising prison sentences needs to go beyond the crime itself.  We need to take a hard look at the cause of all this criminal activity.

The world of crime in Louisiana has cause and effect. We see the effect in the state’s growing prison population. Our politicians rarely discuss the cause.  You can’t improve effect (increasing crime) without understanding and addressing the cause. All this talk about prison reform only addresses a half way solution.  And that is not enough.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.